USFS drains Seneca Pond before restoring area
U.S. Forest Service crews are in the process of restoring the area where Seneca Pond was. Photos/Kathryn Reed
By Kathryn Reed
Seneca Pond is no more. The 51-year-old manmade lake has been drained, and excavators are moving dirt and vegetation with the goal of the site being restored this fall.
Today it is a mudflat. In a couple years U.S. Forest Service officials hope it will be hard to tell they had heavy equipment in there.
The pond was about a half acre, but by the time the work is done 2 acres of stream environmental zone will have been restored in the forest off North Upper Truckee Road in El Dorado County.
At the deepest point it was about 4 feet. For the last two weeks the water was siphoned off into the forest. By the end of next week the excavation should be completed, with restoration work continuing through the fall.
Seneca Pond has long been a favorite spot for area residents. User created trails – many of which will be removed in this process – are intertwined, providing a mountain biking and hiking mecca mostly used by locals.
The pond is most famous for being the ignition point of the 2007 Angora Fire. It was an illegal campground that had not been fully extinguished that led to 254 houses being destroyed. No marker will commemorate that tragedy, but the boulder near where it started still exists.
It was after the fire that a set of protocols was developed for the area. The forest supervisor at the time signed off on the decision in 2010. Getting rid of the pond and working on Angora Creek are the last projects to be completed, and they will be finished this fall.
The pond was built in 1964 and enlarged a year later. This was when the land was privately owned. A hippie commune was out there, including teepees. It was in the early 1970s that the Forest Service became the landlord.
- “We are trying to make it an equally pleasing experience, just different.” — Stephanie Heller, USFS Seneca Pond project manager
Stephanie Heller, project manager for the USFS, said the main reason to remove the pond is that as a manmade entity it isn’t natural.
“It’s typically not something we have in the forest to manage,” Heller said as she walked along side what would have been the shore of the pond.
In the early 1990s the Forest Service took measures to keep the pond full of water year-round. Clay was added as a liner and a conveyance system from the uphill spring was created.
Post-Angora the water table rose significantly because there were no longer the trees to absorb the moisture. This led to the conveyance system breaching, which caused issues.
The hillside above this area with the charred trees is a stark reminder of the 2007 fire. There is also lush undergrowth that proves the area is wet even during the fourth year of a drought.
This pond was also home to the American bullfrog, an invasive species that will eat nearly anything that comes into its path. This in turn has hurt the native Western toad and Pacific tree frog populations.
Heller said amphibians are in such a state of decline that her agency is doing what it can to protect their habitat. As crews continue to work through the fall to return the Seneca Pond area into a setting more like what it would have been like pre-human interference, the goal is the contours and undulations will create pockets of water in normal and wet years where amphibians could thrive.
The little island that was in the pond is staying, though it will be thinned. It will be a landmark of sorts.
Heller said neighbors have an emotional connection to the pond and have voiced their displeasure with the change.
“We are trying to make it an equally pleasing experience, just different,” Heller told Lake Tahoe News.
They should do this to the Keys before the poisonous herbicide is introduced to the lagoons thus out to the lake, and you all know it’s going to do just that.
The pond is most famous for being the ignition point of the 2014 Angora Fire.
Um, better check your sources. That did NOT happen in 2014.
Editors???
Proof read it first.
The most important words in your article you screwed up?
sths class of 1997 10 year reunion was held that weekend at seneca pond. ignition point
The USFS has again altered and destroyed what was the EXISTING environment, in this case, and how did they gain ownership there anyway? The USFS is always angering local residents by things like this. Another reason to let the state’s manage their land and eliminate bloated and expensive federal agencies.
“Stephanie Heller, project manager for the USFS, said the main reason to remove the pond is that as a manmade entity it isn’t natural”
Is what is going on at the creek on LT Blvd going to result in something natural? Maybe I missed something.
Someone should ask the USFS how destroying this ponds helps amphibians? And If beavers made the dam at Seneca or rebuilt it would that be natural and can they prove they didn’t? I imagine many species of wildlife counted on that pond and lived in it and around it. This does prove the USFS destroys habitat, in this case a 51 year old pond and the wildlife that depended on it.
Justice and Kits, what both of you have missed is having walked the walk instead of just talking the talk.
ALL of these USFS projects are discussed and open to public comment years in advance. But I understand that folks like you who are too busy making uninformed comments on EVERY issue under the sun cannot be bothered to ACTUALLY do some homework and not only learn what is going on, but be involved with the process as it happens!
Never happen.
The date has been corrected.
LTN staff
If Blank-Picture believes the USFS listens and corrects mistakes before they happen then they are misguided. This was signed off in 2010 as a done deal yet it is just getting press now and I can’t recall ever hearing about this before in any local media.
I grew up on Mewuk in the70’s and my fiends, family and I spent a lot of time playing in and around the pond. We use to skate on it in the light of the full moon. I remember the tepees and the group living out there. They were cool and always respected the land. I am getting sick of all of these experts coming in to save us from our selves. This town is becoming about as real a community as Main Street, Disneyland. Joni Mitchell wrote the song Big Yellow Taxi about the corporations who took all the trees and put them in a tree museum. Now it seems it our environmental and forest service people who are actually doing that. I look around and see so much fenced off and blocked to protect it compared to when I was a kid up here it is disgusting. And like a previous writer said, how come everywhere but the Keys gets the makeover?
Empty Pic: That still doesn’t negate the fact that there are amphibians as well as other wildlife in and around the pond. USFS has now destroyed that and they want us to not tread on certain areas THEY…the US Forest Circus deems delicate land? The methods of destruction are different but the end result is the same. Hypocrites are seen…..as usual with Feds.
Forest Supervisor Gibson here says Seneca will be restored, but does not elaborate: https://www.laketahoenews.net/2012/06/usfs-looking-back-at-angora-provides-lessons-for-the-future/
The opportunity to comment: https://www.laketahoenews.net/2010/03/usfs-angora-fire-environmental-docucument-up-for-review/
I wonder how many of you have actually been out there lately? Time will tell, but I can tell you that it was a weed-infested mud puddle of stagnant water 1-2 feet deep before the work started. I went by there today and the workers talked about “wetlands” but “not a swamp”. Maybe we should all give it a chance before passing judgement. Wouldn’t you rather look at a diverse ecosystem rather than a stagnant mud puddle?
Maybe I have wrong and I stand corrected if I do but the way I see it the USFS has more collective experience and resources to deal with these issues then any other person or organization in the history of this country maybe the world. I will give them the benefit of the doubt over anyone on this site.
Bigger picture, you are so right. Just a simple bit of knowledge goes right over the heads of justanass and kitty litter.
Time will tell. This time next month this will be old news and the trolls will be back to praising trumpet for his new hair style, or putting down Jerry Brown for some reason or another.
YAWN…
So after the fire we all went to meetings with the Forest Service asking what WE ( neighborhoods around Seneca Pond) wanted. One thing almost all of us agreed on was PLEASE KEEP THE POND! It was emotional & heartfelt & now the pond is gone because its not ” natural” ! It provided a small oasis for wildlife when the creek dries up in the summer- a welcome stop when biking for dogs to take a break without being told ” no dogs allowed”. Kids payed in the pond & ducks nested there. I’ve already been told Raccoons were seen running around near the previous pond in the dry dirt – gee wonder why?? If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! Runoff from the pond was negligible & I can guarantee you the runoff from all the exposed dirt & tire tracks out there will be much more substantial! Why does the Forest Service ask for public comments & don’t listen?? No wonder so many are at odds with their decisions on “managing” OUR public lands!
the pond was an attractive nuisance; just a matter of time before another fire due to cigarettes and campfires. better for the region that it was removed: neighborhoods do not have jurisdiction over our land.
They are Government….and since when does government listen?!
They justify anything they destroy whether or not it’s what the people want. You can start from the top in Washington. O’Vomit is destroying this country and thinks he’s justified in doing so. The river of dung flows down and we see it at our level here.
Form: “neighborhoods do not have jurisdiction over our land”. YOUR land? Seriously? I believe we pay for your salary in taxes. That’s a really bold statement but not surprising coming from a Fed. grunt.
You’ve heard he saying, ” Big gun, little—–.” I think there must be something similar going on with middle aged white men and the hatred/fear of the President.
Blue: I would expect nothing more of a comment from a blind Lib. I do think about the terrorist countries your president supports and makes deals with. But I digress……
Kits says, “But I digress”
Yes you do Kits……..every time you type a comment!
Don’t worry Kit, as hard as it is to believe, he’s not after your wife or your daughter or your cousin Sally Mae.
Unlike your relatives, eh?
In some instances anything older than 50 years is considered historic.
I wonder if there is any historic review documents on file to justify the draining of this.
The area had become pretty much a mosquito factory, Going to have to walk out there to look
kits=stupid
It continues to amaze me that the USFS still can’t interface with public desires and recommendations.
There could have been a compromise with leaving some or most of the pond for people to continue to enjoy it.
But as it always is – the USFS takes public comments and then does exactly as it pleases …….